Editorial: Let not this day pass without notice

By Halifax Media

Published: Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 01:33 PM.

There is much to remember about VE Day and all that came after.

For many Europeans, Freedom proved too short-lived. The
Soviet Union
, partners in the liberation, moved in. The Iron Curtain dropped. Churchill had been right at
Yalta
after all;
Roosevelt
had trusted Stalin far too much.

When Roosevelt died, Truman did not waiver in his role of warrior, making perhaps the most difficult decision ever for a president – to drop atomic bombs on
Japan
.

America
could destroy much of the world, but destruction followed with unmatched compassion.

Truman, with his secretary of state George Marshall, conceived the economic lifeline that would restore much of
Europe
. For decades, Europeans would remember that American generosity saved lives with the Marshall Plan.

The history of VE Day – May 8, 1945 — is one to remember along with the men and women who paid a tremendous sacrifice for that day to arrive.

Chances are today will pass with barely a notice of its significance in the history of the world.

No exciting parades.

No ringing bells.

No guns fired in salute.

May 8, 2013, will come and go with few remembering that 68 years ago on this date Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Forces. The maniacal dreams of Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich came to an end.

Auschwitz.

Buchenwald.

Liberation finally had come to the death camps and their unimaginable horrors. Evil had been defined by the atrocities that took place within their barbed-wire fences.

Freedom rang across Europe – and across America people joined in the rejoicing.

In a month of military anniversaries and recognition of those who gave their lives in America’s wars, VE Day can easily become lost.

The nation takes a holiday to observe Memorial Day. .

D Day lives on in movies, the history books for far too many of succeeding generations.

But the day that marks such a costly military – and important moral — victory passes by quietly.

There is much to remember about VE Day and all that came after.

For many Europeans, Freedom proved too short-lived. The Soviet Union, partners in the liberation, moved in. The Iron Curtain dropped. Churchill had been right at Yalta after all; Roosevelt had trusted Stalin far too much.

When Roosevelt died, Truman did not waiver in his role of warrior, making perhaps the most difficult decision ever for a president – to drop atomic bombs on Japan.

America could destroy much of the world, but destruction followed with unmatched compassion.

Truman, with his secretary of state George Marshall, conceived the economic lifeline that would restore much of Europe. For decades, Europeans would remember that American generosity saved lives with the Marshall Plan.

The history of VE Day – May 8, 1945 — is one to remember along with the men and women who paid a tremendous sacrifice for that day to arrive.